The latest study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) research center at Syracuse University found that despite the progress it made in recent years, the Social Security Administration is once again facing an increasing backlog of pending cases at its 60 nationwide hearing locations.
Dr. Susan Long, Syracuse University associate professor of managerial statistics who co-authored the report on the study with TRAC co-director David Burnham in Washington, D.C., said when SSA Commissioner Michael J. Astrue took office, SSA attempted and temporarily succeeded in addressing the problem.
Now, however, according to Long "[t]here are more and more claimants coming in, the backlog is building, the response time has slowed down and people aren't happy. "
The study, using government figures, found 740,998 pending cases nationally as of June 20 - a sizeable increase from 694,000 cases pending in March 2010.
Long and Burnham said SSA's own performance goal was to reach 668,000 by September.
"These data indicate the agency continues to fall farther behind and appears unable to keep up with the growing mountain of cases awaiting its decision," Long and Burnham said in a statement of findings.